As reported in The West Australian, Event Cinemas at Innaloo is one of three WA cinemas currently offering accessible cinema technology to people who have a hearing or vision impairment, allowing them to enjoy the cinema experience, for some for the first time in years.
Local Alex Clark, who attended a captioned session of Happy Feet 2 with his wife and granddaughter, said that watching a movie using the CaptiView personal captioning device was one of the best experiences of his life. “The screen sitting in that little cup holder and adjusting it in front of me, it was just outstanding, I couldn’t believe it,” he said. "By the end of it I was just so happy for something like that. It is going to help so many people, especially children."
For Media Access Australia’s Scott Hollier, who attended the same movie session with his wife and daughter, listening to audio description meant that “through those really visual scenes it is now really easy for me to keep up”.
The expansion of accessible cinema in Australia is through the Federal Government’s Cinema Access Implementation Plan, overseen by Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers, Jan McLucas. "Catching a movie is something that many of us don't think twice about, but the fact is there are many Australians who haven't been able to enjoy this popular past-time," she said in a recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Find out what it’s like to use captioning and audio description technology at the cinema.
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